The Promise of Bacteriophage Therapy for Burkholderia cepacia Complex Respiratory Infections

Abstract

In recent times, increased attention has been given to evaluating the efficacy of phage therapy, especially in scenarios where the bacterial infectious agent of interest is highly antibiotic resistant. In this regard, phage therapy is especially applicable to infections caused by the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) since members of the BCC are antibiotic pan-resistant. Current studies in BCC phage therapy are unique from many other avenues of phage therapy research in that the investigation is not only comprised of phage isolation, in vitro phage characterization and assessment of in vivo infection model efficacy, but also adapting aerosol drug delivery techniques to aerosol phage formulation delivery and storage.

Production of Inhalation Phage Powders Using Spray Freeze Drying and Spray Drying Techniques for Treatment of Respiratory Infections

“…Recently, a number of in vitro infection models [14, 15], animal models [16–18] and clinical evidence [11, 12, 19–22] have shown the potential of phage therapy in the clearance of MDR bacteria, suggesting it as a highly effective alternative to traditional antibiotics. In addition to using phages as an independent means to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, combining phage with traditional antibiotic therapies to enhance treatment outcomes has also been proposed [23, 24]. …”

Comparative analysis of two phenotypically-similar but genomically-distinct Burkholderia cenocepacia-specific bacteriophages

“…Many of these phages have been isolated in recent years, but only some have been fully sequenced (reviewed in [21,22]). Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of KL1 and AH2, two novel B. cenocepacia -specific phages with identical host ranges and unique growth characteristics, but strikingly dissimilar genomes.…”

Complete Genome Sequence of Temperate Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Bacteriophage DLP5

“… S. maltophilia is capable of causing a variety of infections, and limited treatment options exist due to S. maltophilia ’s exquisite innate multidrug resistance to a broad array of antibiotics ( 1 – 3 ). As an alternative to antibiotics, phages are being examined for treatment of S. maltophilia infections, with initial focus on phage isolation and characterization ( 4 – 16 ).…”